Soul Connections
by starshine.taylor
Summary: Rose thought everything in her life was finally going to be perfect but after an attack on Jill, that killed her, Rose now realizes nothing is going to go as planned. Rose must put her own happiness on hold in order to protect those who mean the most to her. They thought they had faced the worst but now they're starting to realize the worst is yet to come. Set after Last Sacrifice.
1. Chapter One

**Hey guys! I'm Taylor and this is the first fanfiction I have written in about two years, so take it easy on me! If you want you can check out my profile and read some of my old stuff. I like to think there is some pretty awesome stuff there! Thank you so much for reading this story and I really hope you will like it. Basically it's Rose's story after Last Sacrifice. It will deal with her rocky friendship with Adrian, her amazing relationship with Dimitri, Lissa's troubles as she became Queen and of course Jill's death. Please read and review!**

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"Lissa, do you really need to bring all this stuff with you?" I sighed, looking around her large room at all the stuff we still needed to pack. We had been packing the stuff she would take with her to Lehigh for hours and we still weren't half way through. I was packed and ready to go, bringing as little with me as possible. Besides, the only thing I really needed to bring with me was staying behind at Court.

Lissa looked around the room. All of her clothes were thrown out of her closet and scattered around the room. A large part of our time had gone to deciding which clothes she absolutely needed to bring with her and which clothes could afford to be left behind. She decided the more clothes she brought the better. After all, the teenage Moroi queen needed to look hot at all times.

She finally nodded. "You never know what situation will require me to wear what."

I held up a slinky red dress with crystal beading on the front. "What situation would require you to wear this?" I muttered.

She jerked the red dress from my hand, folded it, and tucked it securely in her luggage. "You never know," she said stubbornly, "we might go out sometime."

I had to laugh at this. "Yeah because between going to college and being a queen you will have so much time to party."

A weird look crossed over her face causing me pain. Not for the first time I wished the bond was still between us. It had its disadvantages, like me seeing her sex life with Christian but it also came in handy when I didn't know exactly how she was feeling. Or why she was feeling the way she was.

Lissa had been elected Queen of the Moroi a couple of months ago and in that time she had won a lot of admirers; she had also made some pretty dangerous enemies. Her life was in chaos all the time and she barely had time to do anything other than govern her people. She was adamant about going to college but we both knew that would cause even more stress on her. There was also the problem of her possibly going insane from Spirit one day. She had been working on healing charms to try to balance the effects Spirit could have on her but it wasn't as good as me being able to take the darkness from her. That was also a major advantage of the bond. Not so much for me since when I took the darkness from her it went into me, but it saved Lissa from having it in her and that was all I cared about.

"Lissa," I whispered, putting my hand on her arm, "you are doing so fantastic at all of this. I could not be more proud of you."

"Sometimes I feel like this was all one big mistake. I was never meant to be elected queen, especially not so young. I want to change so much of our world, for the better, but what if I'm not? What if I'm really making everything worse?" Her eyes were shinning with unshed tears as she spoke. She really thought she wasn't strong enough to lead our people.

"You are one of the purest people I know. Your intentions are nothing but good. You have really fantastic ideas, you know this. You are changing our world for the better."

"You really think so?" She seemed cheered by my words.

"I know so." I said, giving her a tight hug. "Your parents would be so proud."

She froze at the mention of her parents and this time I didn't need the bond to tell me what was wrong. I pulled away from our hug and studied her face. She was lost in thought, looking dazed and a little sad. I frowned. After finding out she had a secret sister I had expected her to be happy. Not exactly thrilled, her father did cheat on her mom after all, but it meant she had someone in her family. Someone to love the way she had loved her brother. Instead, she hated Jill. She never said it but I could always tell that she wished Jill had remained a secret.

"You really should be nicer to Jill," I said as I went back to packing up her clothes. "I feel bad for her."

"I am nice to Jill!" She exclaimed, looking a little hurt.

"You ignore her. She doesn't want to be best friends or anything but she wants to get to know you. She's not a bad person and none of this is her fault." It was true. Jill could be a little annoying, especially when she was rambling a lot, but she was nice. She was strong and wanted to learn how to fight in order to fight against the evil Strigoi.

"I don't want to talk about it." Lissa said.

I decided to drop the subject for now and went back to packing more clothes. After a few minutes of silence realization set in. "You know we could have gotten any number of people to pack your room up." I muttered. "You're the Queen. You could even order people to do your homework."

"That would be abusing my powers." Lissa said.

"I don't think asking other people to fold your clothes and pack them is abusing your power. It's what some of them are actually hired to do."

This made Lissa smile, much to my relief. It was good to see her happy instead of stressing over work and being upset over her dad. "You're right. Let's go do something. I only have a couple of weeks left at Court. I want to make the best of it."

"We're coming back like every weekend," I pointed out.

"Yeah but that's for business." She countered. She looked at me hopefully.

I could go out with my best friend to one of the super exclusive clubs the Court had to offer or I could go home to my sexy Russian boyfriend and put in as much one on one time as I possibly could before leaving for College. It wasn't a hard decision to make.

"Not tonight." I said and felt a pang of guilt as her face fell. "Sorry but Dimitri is waiting for me, plus it's late." I motioned at the window where I could see the sun starting to come up. "Plus you have a big day tomorrow."

That instantly perked her up. "The dinner, I almost forgot! I need to pick what I'm going to wear."

I rolled my eyes at her and left her to pick out her clothes which were mostly all packed by now. I had no doubt she would end up pulling everything out that we had just packed away. She had two Guardians that stayed in her house at all times and two that guarded the front door at night. She was completely protected against any threat which meant that I could go to my house and spend time with Dimitri. Christian spent the night with Lissa every night so there was no need for Dimitri to be with him. As much as I loved protecting Lissa going home to Dimitri every night was the best part of my day. I could never get enough of him. I was lost in my thoughts of Dimitri while I was walking to our home when I heard Jill's name being spoke.

I instantly snapped out of my thoughts and tried to listen in on the conversation. I looked around and finally found the speaker of her name. Two Moroi men I had never seen stood gathered under a tree. It was still dark outside but the sun was starting to rise, making it a little lighter. The men were talking in hushed voices and kept glancing around over their shoulders. One of them, a blonde, saw me standing there looking at them and gestured for the other man to turn. They stood there looking at me but didn't say anything else. It was definitely sketchy.

When I got home I went straight to my bedroom and changed into my favorite thing to wear at night, Dimitri's shirt. I walked into the living room, taking my hair down from the messy bun it was in and shaking it out. Dimitri looked up from his western book as I entered the room and I felt my skin turn warm as he took me in. Instantly his eyes turned hungry.

"How is Lissa?" He asked.

"I don't want to talk about her right now."

He arched one eyebrow. Even after all this time I still thought that was pretty bad ass. "What do you want to talk about?"

"I don't want to talk." I murmured seductively. I straddled him on the couch and brought my lips down to his.

Every kiss of his always set me on fire, making me burn from the inside out. He grazed my face with his hand causing chill bumps to rise where he touched me. The kiss started out slow but quickly picked up intensity. His hands traveled all over my body and the sensation of burning from the inside out was driving me wild. Dimitri stood and carried me into our bedroom. He threw me down on the large bed and started kissing me all over.

This one on one time with Dimitri before I left for college was going to be amazing. For once everything in my life was perfect.

But I'm Rose Hathaway, how long would the universe let me be happy before destroying everything and turning my life inside out again?

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**Please leave a review and tell me what you liked and/or what you hated. The next chapter will be up soon! I'm looking forward to reading what y'all have to say.  
:D Tay!  
**


	2. Chapter Two

**I know I only put this up last night but I'm already updating :) I love this chapter and I hope that you will too. I would also love comments from all you amazing people reading ;) I might start sending sneak peaks of upcoming chapters in private messages to those who review. I hope you like this chapter!**

**Disclaimer: The entire Vampire Academy world belongs to the most lovely and talented author around, Ms. Richelle Mead. **

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I was dreaming of the ocean. The brightest blue waves were splashing against the whitest sand beaches I had ever seen. It was warm and the sun was high in the sky. Dimitri was rubbing tanning lotion on my back. Man, he looked amazing shirtless. This ranked pretty high on my list of perfection. I was about to stop him from rubbing my back to give him a kiss, I had always wanted to make love on a beach, when the dream suddenly changed.

I was no longer on the beach with Dimitri, instead I found myself in a garden. The garden was full of roses. Red roses, white roses, yellow roses, purple roses. There were roses everywhere. In the center of the rose garden there was a dark wooden bench that had swirling roses carved all around it. Sitting on that bench were about two dozen red roses and Adrian. I stood frozen in front of the bench. I couldn't believe that I was here. I couldn't believe that Adrian was here.

Since coming back to Court and clearing my name, Adrian had been avoiding me. If I ever showed up to a place where he was he would instantly leave, not telling anyone goodbye. My heart broke a little every time I saw how miserable he was. Not because I was in love with him or anything but because I knew I was the reason for the hurt on his face. I knew I destroyed him. I cared about him as a friend and didn't want to see him in so much pain. He still spoke to Lissa all the time and she told me that he had returned to his old ways-partying every night, hooking up with random Moroi girls, drinking away the pain. He hadn't spoken to me since he came to see me right after I woke up from being shot but here he was, right in front of me, looking like he had seen a ghost.

"What are you doing here?" He snapped.

I cringed. He hated me. I hated knowing that I hurt him but I hated knowing that he hated me even more. I probably deserved it. "I don't know. You must have brought me here subconsciously or something." I didn't have it in me to be witty or sarcastic. This was major. This could be a turning point in our friendship.

"I don't want you here." He muttered. He picked up a rose from the bench. The rose was a beautiful shade of red and its long stem had thorns everywhere. He squeezed the stem in his fist. I was shocked. He was resorting to psychical pain to overpower the emotional pain, just like Lissa used to do with her cutting. Spirit had always made Adrian a little odd but he had never resorted to anything psychical as an outlet. Normally he self-medicated with alcohol and I suspected he had been drinking a lot lately. Maybe Spirit had more of an effect on him than we realized.

"Adrian-" I began, walking closer to him.

"Did you know that every rose has a thorn?" He said this in a musical voice, his eyes wide and looking through me. "Did you know that Rose? Every rose has a thorn. You have a thorn. You used it to break my heart. Every rose…"

"Stop," I said as I reached for his hand. I gently pried his fingers off of the stem and took the rose from him. Where he had squeezed the thorn there were little gashes in his hand. "Adrian, I'm so sorry for everything. Really, I am." I put my hand in his uninjured one but he quickly jerked his away.

"Have you ever broken Belikov's heart with one of your many thorns? I think you have more thorns than most roses. That's because you're different than most roses. You are much more beautiful than any flower could be." The more he rambled the more I realized that Spirit was the cause of this state. He was heartbroken because of me but there was no way I could have caused this much pain, or at least I hoped there was no way I could have caused all of this suffering. Had he really loved me that much?

"Look at me." I demanded, putting my finger under his chin and turning his face to look at me. "You are better than this. You're better than all the drinking you've been doing and you can overcome Spirits side effects. You are strong."

"Not as strong as you, your thorn still tore my heart."

"Would you stop? You're sounding like that Edgar Poe guy now and it's really starting to freak me out." This is it, I thought, he's lost all his marbles. He's completely crazy.

There was a long uncomfortable silence before he finally spoke again. "Your aura glows all the time now," he whispered. "He makes you so happy. It never glowed that way when we were together."

He sounded so miserable making that confession that I cringed yet again. This is your entire fault Rose, I chastised myself. You just had to break the crazy man's heart.

"Adrian, I-" I began but once again Adrian cut me off before I could even finish speaking. I was going to tell him that my aura changed because I was no longer bound to Lissa. I wasn't covered in shadows anymore; it wasn't all because of Dimitri.

"Don't bother," he muttered. "I'm sorry I brought you here and probably interrupted some sexy dream about Belikov."

"I'm glad you brought me here. I have wanted to talk to you for so long. I still want us to be friends." I said earnestly. I thought it best to leave out that I actually had been having a sexy dream about Dimitri.

He stared at me for a really long time. I swore he was trying to see my soul through my eyes. "Those eyes haunt me in my sleep."

Then he was gone. The Spirit dream dissolved and left me to sleep in a stark blackness that was both welcoming and disappointing.

I awoke the next morning feeling worse than I had in a long time. After Adrian's visit last night it made me realize just how bad I had made his life and more than just his. Sydney was still somewhere out in the world and I had no idea what happened to her after she helped me out. I asked Abe a couple of weeks ago. He vaguely said she was okay but didn't elaborate on anything. I felt a bang of guilt. I was so happy. Everything in my life was perfect. I was Lissa's guardian, something I had wanted since as long as I could remember. I was happy with Dimitri, being with him was the most amazing thing to me. Things had turned out better for me than I could have ever hoped or expected but because of me people were unhappy.

Dimitri pulled me close to him and wrapped his arms around my waist. "Good morning Roza." He whispered in my ear. Just that little contact and comment had my heart racing.

"I don't see what's good about it, Comrade." I muttered.

He pulled back slightly and turned me around so I was facing him. "What's wrong?"

"I destroy people's lives. I'm selfish and don't care what happens to the people I love as long as I'm getting what I want." My voice was so bitter it surprised even me. Dimitri arched one eyebrow.

"I don't think that's true Roza. You are compassionate. You care a great deal for your friends and family. The past year has been hard for you but everyone who helped you did it willing. They would sacrifice a lot for you, just as you would sacrifice a lot for them." He twirled a piece of my hair around his finger and gazed at me intently. "It's one of the many reasons why I love you."

His words cheered me up a little but I was still hurting for Adrian. "A lot of people have hurt and are still hurting because of me. It doesn't seem right that I should be so happy after all the pain I have caused." I admitted.

"Adrian?" Dimitri guessed.

I nodded. "He visited me in my dreams last night. It was weird to see him that way." I briefly explained the dream to Dimitri and my theory of Spirit affecting his heartache and making it worse.

Dimitri was silent for a moment. "I know what it's like to lose your love Rose, or to think that I have. I would feel and react exactly the same way Adrian has. Maybe not drowning my sorrows with alcohol or rambling about thorns but I would be heartbroken. You are an amazing woman. Adrian will find someone to love again soon but right now he's just grieving. I don't think he's gone crazy from Spirit but it definitely is affecting him. It always has. It will pass."

I groaned and pulled the cover over my head. "It would be so much easier if he was just going crazy and I wasn't the reason for all of this."

"This isn't all your fault." Dimitri muttered wryly, pulling the cover away from my face.

I instantly regretted bringing this up. Dimitri still carried a lot of pain from what happened to him when he was a Strigoi but I also knew he carried pain from sleeping with me while I was with Adrian. He finally learned to forgive himself for the things he did as a Strigoi, things he couldn't control, but sleeping with me? He was a Dhampir. He couldn't seem to forgive himself for things that were in his control and honestly there was nothing to feel bad about. I was glad it happened.

"Of course it is. No one could blame you for wanting me. Not with my goddess like body and awesome hair." I teased, batting my eyelashes at him.

That was all it took. He smiled and laughed one of his rare laughs. I had to admit that I had been hearing those laughs a lot lately and each time it made my heart sing with joy. "You are incredibly beautiful."

We finally got up and dressed quickly in our black uniforms. I pulled my hair up into a messy high bun and put on some of my favorite lip gloss. Every time I was about to run out Dimitri would buy me some more, just to make me happy.

We walked hand in hand to Lissa's. The sun was setting outside giving everything a soft, golden glow. We passed the spot where I had overheard Jill's name at last night. I quickly told Dimitri about the encounter, realizing I never mentioned it last night.

"I don't think there is anything to worry about," Dimitri said at last. "Jill has become a popular subject around court. She's another living Dragmoir and Lissa's sister. It's normal for the people to talk about her."

I was skeptical. "Don't you think it's weird how they stopped talking when they saw me?"

"Not really," Dimitri smiled, "you're a pretty scary person."

I playfully punched him on the arm. I was just turning my key in Lissa's lock when I heard an earth stopping scream. I quickly opened the door and ran into Lissa's room, noticing there were no Guardians in the front of her place. My heart was quickly sinking. I couldn't tell what was wrong without the bond.

I flung open the door to her room, Dimitri right behind me, and I couldn't believe what I saw.

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**Please review :)  
:) Tay  
**


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